


Fires and Frameups

by fairytalehearts



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Firefighter AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-08
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-04-25 10:03:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4956058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairytalehearts/pseuds/fairytalehearts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Local Fire Lieutenant Oliver Queen has been accused of starting fires in the Glades and Downtown Starling City. We interviewed Chief of House 74, Slade Wilson and he said Oliver has always had a temper and was reckless. He states that starting fires came as a shock to the whole house.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sezq20](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sezq20/gifts).



Wiping the soot off his face, Oliver threw his gloves onto the grass and watched as the rest of the building came down in an ashy heap. They had gotten everyone out, but this was the third suspicious fire in a week. Chief was more than a bit antsy, ready to for answers.  In his whole time at SFD there had never been a serial arsonist and their pattern was changing from old warehouses in the Glades to apartment buildings.

Who knew where he was going to strike next? The rest of the boys got the fire out and Oliver tossed off his oxygen tank and yelled for the Probie to put his gear back.

“Lieutenant Queen, Barry Allen from Central City PD.” Chief Wilson patted him on the shoulder, “You’re in charge of making sure our guests don’t get injured at the scene.”

“Guests?”

The blonde ran across the street and under the barricade, sticking her hand out before she missed the chance, “Felicity Smoak. I’m here representing STAR Labs.”

Oliver wasn’t sure why STAR Labs was involved in an Arson Investigation, but the two of them were wearing heavy hiking boots and had their cameras ready, so he supposed they knew what they were doing.

“Felicity’s testing out STAR Labs technology that could be used in Arson Investigations, Crime Scene Analysis, really anything. It uses- a- predictive algorithm and 3D modeling- it’s quite remarkable.”

Felicity beams at Barry but Oliver does not have time for this, “I don’t know how things work in Central City, but we have a serial arsonist who could strike at any moment and we don’t bring our girlfriends to crime scenes.”

Storming off towards the staircase to look for clues, he heard her mutter, “He’s not my boyfriend” before she went to work setting up her gear. Thirty minutes later, her lasers were doing their work, the truck abandoning him at the scene with the brain trust.

Falling asleep, his helmet tilted forward, the blonde one poked his side before motioning towards her suitcase, “I’m leaving. Do you need a ride back to the station?”

She peels off her sweatshirt, opting to change into the suit jacket she was holding, her tank top sticking to her sweater so he got a good view of her blue bra-

“Yeah. I could use a ride.” He muttered, not wondering why he was so disappointed when she righted her tank top back down.

Or why he felt like his hands should be the one to do it.

**

He hates Barry.

Hates him.

He leans close to Felicity, their shoulders brush and they smile at each other. Like teenagers in love. It was sickening.

He also hates Chief Wilson for making him babysit the two of them when the Probie was more than capable of cooking and watching the two nerds in the conference room. The siren goes off and his instinct is to head for the truck.

Dig would be driving the truck, Maseo up front. Oliver liked to sit at the door, ready to be the first one out to access the damage. Tommy was on the squad truck and it was a little competition to see who would get out first-

But none of that was going to happen while the two little lovebirds geeked out about their computers.

“Coffee?”

Felicity glanced to the pot across the room and fucking bats her eyelashes at him. And he fucking went. Like a trained monkey. The coffee was notoriously gross and thick like tar but it even smelled better upon closer inspection.

“I ran some vinegar through and then that didn’t help much but then I realized it’s the thing you guys call coffee that was ruining it.” Felicity leaned against the counter, her shirt rising just slightly around her waist.

He was obsessed with her waist.

She handed him a mug of coffee, sprinkling some powdered sugar on top. Taking a sip of her own coffee she was drinking out his favorite mug, the mug that clearly said “Lieutenant Queen, Truck 74”. He didn’t let anyone touch his mug.

Except for blondes named Felicity. Who wore crop tops to the House and vowed to stay in the house, his house, until they caught whomever was doing this. The trucks and the ambo come back, Tommy easily commanding Harper to rinse off the trucks.

“Ms. Smoak. I missed you these past 24 hours.” Tommy flirted easily, kissing her hand before heading towards the showers.

“I will beat him up for you.” Nyssa smiled, high fiving Felicity before smacking her butt- heading the opposite way towards the women’s showers.

“Don’t you have a day off?” Felicity asks suddenly doing the math in her head. Yes he was supposed to be off with the rest of his truck but he was assigned to help them and didn’t mind staying at the house. It’s not like he needed to see his mother or sister-

“I’m an EMT, I’m not a fucking psychic. Jesus, the sooner Lyla comes back from maternity leave, the better.” Laurel stormed past them, covered in what he hoped was vomit. Because it smelled like sewage and the temp replacement was _crying_ and fuck. Diggle rolled his eyes and went for the Temp. Laurel’s reputation for being a bitch was only rivaled by her reputation as the best EMT in the city. The house didn’t need her reputation getting them labeled a bad house. And Dig was the best man to talk the poor guy off the ledge.

Not that Oliver even remembered his name. Maybe they were a bad house.

The line for the men’s bathroom suddenly disappeared when Laurel went in there after Tommy.

Felicity poked him between the ribs to get a response and he growled out of reflex, “Yes. But when Chief wants something done, I do it. That’s how it works.”

“Chief Wilson is a good man, right?” Felicity whispered, putting a hand over his own and waiting for Chief to storm past them and head for his office. Whatever happened on the run must have been horrible.

“Yeah, he taught me everything I know. Why?”

“Nothing.” Felicity lied.

He didn’t like that she lied to him.

The doors open up and the rest of the truck filters in, Maseo heading for the men’s showers.

“Dude you don’t want to go in there.” Roy mumbled making some inappropriate hand motions.

“Half of us were projectile vomited on, the other half were knee deep in raw sewage for the better part of an hour. Seeing Merlyn fuck Lance in the showers is of no consequence to me. If they want to copulate smelling like garbage- they are the disgusting ones.”

Maseo whipped open the door to the men’s room, “Keep fucking or don’t. I’m showering.”

“What’s everyone staring at?” A new voice asks glancing between the eight firemen, and the brain trust. Felicity explains the shower fucking situation and the woman laughs. “I like you.”

“My name’s Iris. I’m the new EMT on Ambo 14. Dispatch said I was needed desperately and if I made it the week I’d be positioned here permanently.”

Barry practically pushes Felicity out of the way to talk to Iris and Oliver takes that as his cue to leave. If Barry was going to disrespect Felicity like that he didn’t want to be around to see it. He heads to his quarters and right as he kicks the door shut it stops abruptly on a lime green heel.

“What is your problem?” Felicity demanded gently closing the door behind her so she wasn’t seen by the rest of the guys.

“What’s my problem? Your boyfriend is practically drooling over another woman right in front of you. You should be mad at him- not me.”

“For the 100th time- I am not dating Barry! Why does that even matter? You’ve been a crotchety-old-jerk to me all day when I’m here slaving over new technology to help you find an arsonist and the only thing that my results say is that there was diesel fuel used on the phone line and there were traces of potassium bicarbonate. And I don’t know what that means and the only thing you do asshat, is glare at me instead of helping!”

Her ponytail was coming undone, her glasses were crooked and she looked _pissed_. Which he should not find attractive. At all.

“I’m sorry.”

Just as she’s about to ask _for what_ , he grabs her glasses off her face and then kisses her. Hands pulling out her ponytail, he plays with the ends while his eyes are closed easing her lips art just enough to slide his tongue between them.

He hears birds chirping, the sun setting, he gets lost in kissing Felicity Smoak and his heart feels heavy and sated and he needed to put that particular fire out before he ended up taking her in his crappy squeaky cot-

Fire. Out.

Pulling back, Felicity still had her eyes closed. Pressing a quick kiss to her cheek, she opened her bright blue eyes like a princess in a Disney movie and smiled.

“You are a genius.” Grabbing her face again he peppered kisses on her lips before grabbing her hand and running past the dining room where Laurel and Iris were arm wrestling. Making a mental note to ask about that later, he sat in front of her computer and clicked around her virtual crime scene.

The unused phone lines were definitely more scorched than the other places in the wall. Rolling over to Barry’s computer the chemical components, “Potassium bicarbonate is used in fire extinguishers. See the room closest to the fire’s origin? There are traces because it’s not flammable. The arsonist didn’t want us to see that was how he was starting the fire.”

Oliver is up and grabbing Felicity’s purse before grabbing the keys to the Chief’s SUV.

Felicity has no clue what’s going on but when they arrive at the hospital, the woman who lived in the apartment was just signing herself out. “Ms. Humphrey. Do you use the phone line in your apartment?”

Oliver can hear the lightbulb go on over Felicity’s head when Ms. Humphrey denies having a land line. She had been out of town for a few days and when she returned her apartment was on fire and she ran inside to save her cat.

But in the crime scene photos a melted piece of plastic was on the floor that could definitely be an old phone. And calling an improperly wired phone would start the fire remotely and now they just needed to find out where the gasoline from-

Piling back into Chief’s SUV, excited to drive to SCPD to get a detective, he paused when Felicity wrinkled her nose at something.

“Does it smell like gasoline in here?”

He didn’t notice it on the drive over, but he definitely noticed now. Hearing the phone ring in the trunk, the car was on suddenly fire. Smoke, flames: heat. Swearing, Oliver took one look at Felicity and he knew she was preparing to die.

“Not today.” Oliver growled, turning a sharp left, right into the ocean. The car was weightless for six seconds before they barreled head first towards the water.

Taking a deep breath before impact he managed to get his seat belt off before the airbags failed. He was panicking, definitely panicking, but he managed to get Felicity out of the passenger seat before he passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity saves the day

**Felicity**

“Breathe, Damnit!”

Felicity knew breaking ribs was definitely a possibility but she really needed Tall, Dark and Sexy to wake up. Slamming her hands against his chest, she leaned forward to resume CPR, she smiled triumphantly when he started choking up water.

Swimming was not her strong suit, especially pulling Oliver towards the shore. Maybe it was adrenaline maybe she was secretly a hulk. Well hopefully not that last thing, but they really needed a hero if they wanted to get out of this situation alive.

The SUV was still on fire and there was only one person who could find out where they went: Chief Wilson. He had access to the diesel fuel, would have known about the telephone trick and would be good enough to cover his tracks: mainly by killing Oliver. And her by proximity, but maybe he didn’t know they were together

“Are you okay?” Felicity asked running a hand near his temple to brush the stray droplets of water away. Or that’s what she told herself because he was wet and looked delicious.

“You really wanted to kiss me again, didn’t you?” His gaze downcast and staring at her lips.

Felicity slapped him on the chest, “Not the time, Oliver! Someone just tried to kill us! And I’m pretty sure I know who did it.”

“Me too,” Oliver sighed heavily debating his words, “Things were much better when we were kissing.”

When STAR Labs sent her to shadow Barry for real world applications, she hadn’t thought much of it. When a serial arsonist was rumored to be in Starling, it was important that they go and check it out. And while she solved the case the evidence didn’t tell her what to do when the bad guy was a firefighter and tried to kill them.

“Laurel’s Dad is a detective- I trust him.”

They’re drenched and their cellphones were fried, so hiking it to the nearest gas station took a good hour. She’s somewhat dry when she digs the soggy ten dollar bill out of her wallet to pay for some water and some cheesy puffs she deemed necessary to their survival.

And condoms. Just in case.

The TV above the register stops with a breaking news update, “Local Fire Lieutenant Oliver Queen has been accused of starting fires in the Glades and Downtown Starling City. We interviewed Chief of House 74, Slade Wilson and he said Oliver has always had a temper and was reckless. He states that starting fires came as a shock to the whole house.”

She had known Oliver for one week and she had never seen a temper.

Even after she told him that apart from killing them Captain WIlson also threw him under the bus, he just looked sad.

“My sister lives in Starling. Aside from dragging her through the mud, the thought of me going to prison would destroy her. She’s doing well for the first time ever- she has friends. She’s clean. She has a good job and a boyfriend I can tolerate. He loves her, more than her addiction, more than her beautiful face, he loves her soul.”

Felicity should keep her mouth shut. She should not suggest they go to Central City to clear his name. She should not mention that they cannot be tracked because they are dead and should not mention that she just washed her sheets.

 “You know that you’ve been talking out loud this whole time, right?” Oliver smiled, putting a reassuring hand to her face. “And as much as I’d like to see your sheets, I can’t leave with this looming over my head.”

“Any evidence we had is in the car, ruined.” Felicity sighed.

“Well, on the plus side, he’s not 100% sure you’re dead or that you were in on ‘my evil plan’. You might need to do some undercover work.”

They make a plan to watch Slade from the inside, while she secretly accesses who is on their side and who isn’t. Which was utterly ridiculous because Oliver was the Lieutenant. They listened to him and watched his nicely defined backside. They would not betray him, or so she hoped.

“Take this.” Felicity handed him her credit card and her hotel key. “I’ll go back to the house and see what’s going on.”

The uber ride to the house was somber. She almost expected rioting in the streets, but all was quiet. Until she got to the house.  If chaos could be personified, it would be one Thomas Merlyn. If the chair being flung at the front door was him “being calm” she really wished she could have seen him not calm. From a 100-foot distance.

“This is BULLSHIT! It wasn’t him! He is- was- my BEST FRIEND! My brother.”

By her best guess there was fifteen minutes left on shift and he was going to be riled up for the rest of forever. Angry tears dripping down his face, Laurel was doing her best to console him. Mentally she added Tommy to people she would loop in.

Barry was frantically trying to pack up all of his things, “Captain wants us out by tomorrow. We’ve got train tickets first thing in the morning.”

Spying said Captain down the hallway, he made his way towards her and Felicity did her best to keep her skin from crawling.

“I want to apologize for how- gruff Lt. Queen was with you, during your stay here. Obviously he had other mental issues going on we weren’t aware of and- I hope his impression had not left a-a-negative impact on our house.”

“Nothing Oliver did would paint a negative picture.” Felicity nodded giving him her best fake smile.

Catching up to Tommy, she shoved him into the mop closet and pulled the chain over the light.

“Ms. Smoak, I have a girlfriend. And she gets- _angry_ when other women molest me in broom closets.”

Felicity did not have time for eyes that twinkled in the dark or flirty fire lieutenants, “Oliver is alive and you need to keep quiet about it.”

That got his attention.

Which also got Laurel’s attention (because he was missing) so she had to start over half way into the story in which Laurel threatened to shove her boot into a particular Captain’s body part until something or another came out-

Laurel shook her hair behind her shoulder and cocked one hand on her hip, “How are we taking him down?”

“We need evidence. And he wants me gone by tomorrow so we need to get it quickly.”

Felicity opened the door a crack and made a show of screeching about looking for CAT-5 cables and trying to brush the Laurel and Tommy off herself.

She hoped that was convincing enough, but Laurel and Tommy stayed in the closet a lot longer than necessary before Tommy said goodbye to everyone, Laurel straightening her skirt down on the way out of the house.

**

Oliver hated waiting.

Between the worrying about his house, worrying about Felicity and worrying about his sister, he had plenty of problems without the press revealing him to be a psychotic arsonist. He was a man of action (hence _firefighter_ ) and being cooped up in Felicity’s hotel room was only entraining until the first time he went into her underwear drawer.

She had brought enough clothes to be here for months.

Her job at STAR Labs must be important if they could afford to send her out for this long.

Hearing the door beep, he went to the closet to hide from the cleaning lady, but instead the door slammed open, people talking.

“Felicity’s kind of a workaholic.” Barry’s stupid voice said from the living room. “She didn’t even want the hotel room and since her job pays a lot more, she’s been letting me stay here.”

Who was he talking to?

“Being at the house all day was depressing, I know I just met Lieutenant Queen, but I can’t believe that he’s a serial arsonist.” The new paramedic was already going back to “his” place?

“He’s not.” Barry told her, “Lt. Queen is a good guy. Little grumpy, maybe. Hold on, Felicity keeps the condoms in her luggage.”

Swearing to himself, Oliver dug into the suitcase at his knee and found the box and when Barry whipped open the door, he was ready to grab him by the mouth so he didn’t scream.

“I’m not an arsonist. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to let go of your mouth now and you’re not going to scream, okay?

Barry shook his head, and Oliver removed his hands letting Barry breathe for a few seconds before checking to see if Iris was going to check on them.

“They think you’re dead!” Barry gasped.

“Only thing that takes out Queens are collapsing buildings. Felicity is working to clear my name and gather evidence against Captain Wilson.”

He’s sputtering and gasping when Iris comes in to check on him, and then there were four. Barry explains how Captain Wilson wanted them out of there since the arsonist was gone and how he had to leave tomorrow- hence his hookup with Iris.

“Felicity was packing up her gear when we left. Second Shift is there now and Captain Wilson is gone for the day.” Iris pointed out, “Tommy was pretty pissed when we left- maybe you should call him.”

“Oh, he’s pissed, alright.” Oliver had never been more happy to hear Tommy’s voice in his life.

Tommy had food (thank god) and beers (thank god again), while Felicity and Laurel cart her things in, he eagerly dug into the bag.

“You’re new. How do we know we can trust you?” Tommy asked between bites of burgers, glaring at Iris who had grabbed a burger out of the sack. She hesitated, thinking she should give it back, but she went with her baser instincts.

“Someone was gonna give the Kid a _goodbye present_ when they came in, so if she’s not cool, then I don’t know who is.” Oliver announced, bumping fists with Tommy. Iris blushed, Barry turned red and for a moment things were great.

Which led him to the stark realization that Felicity would be leaving too. And as shitty as his situation was now, he didn’t want to lose her when it was done. They hadn’t even gotten a chance.

Felicity had planted something or another on the Captain’s computer, and Laurel had clued her father in the whole case. They just needed any proof. A shred of proof.

Which was probably not going to happen any time soon.

“I can’t be dead forever.” Oliver pointed out, suddenly very aware of Felicity’s proximity to his body. Lounging on the bed her hip was near his knee. And he really wanted to be alone with her and talk strategy while he-

Turned into a pile of mush.

“Seriously guys, you shouldn’t be here. We’ll coordinate through Felicity’s phone and when you’re on shift tomorrow, just keep an eye out.” Oliver said instead, making the scoot motion until they left.

Leaving the two of them alone.

“Ugh, finally. Tommy and Laurel are both a little crazy. But in different ways. Like spinning plates.” Felicity groaned, flopping back onto the mattress.

That tiny sliver of stomach was taunting him again.

So was her face and by the time she craned her neck to look at him, he knew he was a goner.

Oliver would like to think that he is not a guy who kisses and tells, but he’s sure the smile plastered on his face was there the entire time the four of them ate breakfast.

**

Felicity frowned at the screen.

She had been investigating arson’s as far back as she could get her hands on, yet nothing was popping out at her. And Oliver was- distracting her.

He wasn’t doing anything particularly distracting, but breathing.

He made breathing look good, damn him. Sitting across the desk from her, he meticulously read each of the case files looking for anything that would clear his name. Anything that would connect the arson to Captain Slade.

“Now that we have his MO, we just need to spook him into messing up.” Felicity informed him. They had enough evidence they just needed to catch him.

“What do you want me to do? Show up at his house under a sheet and scare him?”

Felicity crinkled her nose at his snarky comment and moved her laptop, “Well if you can figure out what triggers him into starting the fires then we wouldn’t be wasting our time. There’s no pattern in dates, times, locations, nothing. And you being grouchy is not helping anything!”

“You’re right.” He growled, tossing the folders onto the ground and vaulting himself on top of the desk. She’s not sure how he does it but while he jumps up on to the desk, it pushes her five feet backwards. Two legs leaning backwards against the wall, she wasn’t sure if she was dizzy from being thrust against the wall or from his mouth covering hers.

One knee on the table, his hands on her face, Felicity couldn’t remember ever being so aggressively kissed. It was more like mouth assault and she was more than happy to curl her toes and pray that gravity was on her side.

Gasping for air, she pulled away from him, and she could feel the blush on her cheeks.

“Focus. We need to- focus.”

Oliver went from annoying to cute so quickly it made her head spin. He actually batted his eyelashes at her, “So you don’t want to take a _quick break_.”

“Something tells me nothing is ever _quick_ with you.”

“Are you flirting with me Ms. Smoak, because let me tell you it’s distracting.”

Mouth open, ready to retort, her gaze flickered to the laptop that was perched precariously on the edge of the table. “Is it weird that Captain Wilson is not in any of the crime scene photos? None? Where does he go? It’s not like he goes to stare at the wreckage.”

“Unless he does.” Oliver pointed out. It’s amazing really, that she can see him think through the situation and still have no clue where he was going with this.

Somehow Oliver manages to move her, the desk and her chair back to its normal position before running towards the door, “Are you coming or not?”

Scrambling after him, they drive her rental towards the firehouse, where he sneaks in for a radio. Since the trucks were gone she assumed that meant they were on a call.

“He’s going to get sloppy if I’m out of the picture.”

Felicity looks down at her phone, the text messages coming through about a fire near the house.

“Let’s go catch this asshole.”

**

Scanning his memory banks Captain Wilson was always at the scene, but never-

At the front. He usually stayed in his truck, or so he thought. Creeping down the side of the fire truck, he looked for the Captain and did not see him. Normally his smaller truck was parked right next to the fire engines but it was nowhere to be seen. He had radioed in that he was at the scene but there was no sign of the man.

The fire was raging and his instincts told him to run in, to help people.

And the fact that Slade Wilson was keeping him from doing that quickly soured his mood. Spotting the truck at the edge of the perimeter, the Captain of House 74 was nowhere to be found.

Hearing an argument from the other side of the alleyway, he did his best to stay out of view.

“You weren’t supposed to frame my son for arson.”

Robert Queen was one of the most dedicated firemen to ever work in Starling City. He worked with Mayor’s office after the earthquake during his tenor as captain and it got him promoted up the ranks until he moved to Los Angeles.

He was natural born leader and- his father. His father wasn’t supposed to betray him.

“You weren’t supposed to blackmail me into setting fires for you. I had to lie to everyone about Oliver, someone I consider to be a good fireman, and a good person, and throw him under the bus. I never agreed to kill anyone from my house that was on you.”

“It wasn’t meant for him. You just couldn’t have been in the truck, Slade.”

“FREEZE! POLICE!”

Captain Lance runs past him, gun drawn, Slade holding his hands up to let them pass: to arrest his father.

“Oliver! I looked into Captain Wilson’s financials-” Felicity started taking a good look at the scene in front of them. “Oh. There’s that.”

Watching your father get handcuffed was a bit more satisfying when everyone thought you were dead. Captain Wilson had never been a particularly friendly man, but his Captain wraps his arms around him and squeezes.

“Kid, let’s go home.”

Oliver looked over to Felicity, playing with the hem on her pink dress and smiled. “I’m taking my vacation. There’s a bed calling me from Central City.”

Turning towards her, he held out his arm and she fit perfectly underneath it.

Not even bothering to confront his father, he got in Felicity’s rental and headed for the train station.

**

**Epilogue**

Glancing down at his suitcase, Oliver hefted Felicity bags over his shoulder before picking up his own bag and heading for the parking lot.

“I mean we did have a wedding in Vegas. So you carrying my bags falls under the purview of husbandly duties.” Felicity explained as they walked through the busy airport.

He didn’t go to Vegas intending to meet Felicity’s mother, but maybe they had partied a little bit too hard on their last night there and gotten married by a female Elvis impersonator. There was a ring and a marriage license and lots of tequila.

And then they had a very serious talk about their living situation. And kids.

“This is your last chance. This is me telling you that I will move to Central City.” Oliver told her, with all seriousness in his voice.

“You will do no such thing.” Felicity leaned in close to kiss his cheek before bracing herself for impact. “They’re your family, which means they’re my family too.”

_“CONGRATULATIONS!”_

The whole house (plus fire trucks) were parked outside the airport and if he were on shift he’d definitely put disciplinary action on all of them.

But he wasn’t so he let it slide. Just this once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided that this fic was never going to end and it was best to end it as is. Thanks to anyone who read/left comments :)


End file.
